User manual NUMARK BCM135

[. . . ] Professional Disc Jockey Products the BEATKEEPERTM II BCM135 Audio Synchronized Beat Counter OWNER'S MANUAL PLEASE READ ! 1 NUMARK BCM135 the AUDIO SYNCHRONIZED BEAT COUNTER BeatkeeperTM II A LETTER FROM THE INVENTOR: Dear Customer, Congratulations on your purchase of the second generation BeatkeeperIITM. This product is the culmination of a quest to bring more "feel" into mixing so that mixing duds like myself can finally use those fancy CD mixers, or those of us who still swear by vinyl can mix with greater ease. Features like the Beat Assist are the result of working with working DJs like yourself and noticing that it's frustrating to wait for the computer to figure everything out for you. The downbeat start minimizes your need to be a control panel expert and allows you to keep your hands on the music, where they belong. [. . . ] Once you see the red beat LED flashing with the beat of the music, press the respective Sync Lock button, and the Sync Lock LED will illuminate. Activating the Sync Lock tells the Beatkeeper to stop scanning the music for a different BPM and to start tracking the beat changes of the current BPM as you adjust the pitch of the music. This function is manual to ensure that the Beatkeeper is right on the beat. Once the Sync Lock LED is on, the Beatkeeper tracks the beats of the music and updates the BPM display on every beat. To unlock, simply tap the Sync Lock button once and the Beatkeeper is back in BPM scanning mode. After syncing an audio input, try speeding up and slowing down the music. You'll notice that the red beat LED will continue to flash on the downbeat, and the BPM number will adjust itself to match the tempo of the music. This indicates that the Beatkeeper is successfully tracking the beat and will continue to do so throughout your mix. If you stop the music you will notice the Beat LED will go solid and the BPM number will remain in memory. Once the music is restarted the Beatkeeper will remember the last tracked rhythm pattern and pick up on the beat right away. PLAY the music, OBSERVE the beat match, and PRESS the Sync Lock Button. If you can do that twice, you can mix with the Beatkeeper. 14 Beat Assist Of course all music doesn't have hard, steady beats, and let's face it, sometimes you need the music set up yesterday. If the BeatkeeperTM is having trouble matching the beat to the flashing red Beat LED, or if you need to sync up Immediately, tap the Beat Assist button 2-8 times as you hear the beat, the same way you would tap your feet to the music. Pressing the Beat Assist Button more than once aligns the BeatkeeperTM to your taps. Note that the Sync Lock LED illuminates, signifying that the BeatkeeperTM is now locked in with the beat. Simply put, if the BeatkeeperTM isn't on track, or you're in a real hurry, you need to press a button twice instead of once. If the BeatkeeperTM is synced to the correct BPM but is aligned to the music's offbeat, tap the Beat Assist button with the beat of the music just once and you will have brought the BeatkeeperTM back in sync. 2 Channel Mixing After you feel comfortable syncing up the Beatkeeper, you're ready to mix. Mixing with the Beatkeeper has three parts: syncing to the music (which you've done), aligning the tempos, and aligning the beats. With the first selection synced (Sync Lock LED illuminated), sync up the right channel the same way you set up the left. As the second Sync Lock LED illuminates, a new dimension of DJing begins: VISUAL MIXING. The bar graphs on the top of the Beatkeeper have now been activated and are updating automatically. NOTE: In order to perform a mix which is tracked by the Beatkeeper, both channels MUST be synced. [. . . ] This may happen if the music has several beats missing, or the rhythm suddenly becomes extremely complex or variable. You can either resync the beat using the Beat Assist button or wait a few seconds for the BeatkeeperTM to automatically recover. T13 The BeatkeeperTM seems to track the music for a little bit right after using the Beat Assist, and then drifts off. This could be one of two things: a ) The BeatkeeperTM is averaging the time between each of your Beat Assist button taps. b ) The BeatkeeperTM was synced during a section of the music without a well defined beat. [. . . ]